So I had this idea about an entire story about Hope, instead of just bits and pieces of the family's life, and I thought I would post what would serve as the first chapter/prologue here and see what you guys thought. If you want to see it as a full story, just let me know in the reviews, otherwise, this can just serve as the next chapter for Dear Hope – but I do think it would be really cool to make it into a full story. Obviously you would have to read Dear Hope, for reason such as knowing who Jason is, and some of the moments that occur, but it wouldn't really be that big of a deal if you haven't, and considering if you're reading thing, then you've probably read the first five chapters. So now that I've written this incredibly long and repetitive paragraph, just let me know if you want to see this developed into a full story – that would be updated regularly – or not.
DEAR HOPE
"But I don't understand why we have to hurt people."
"Oh love," Rebekah soothed as she tucked a stray piece of dark hair behind a little ear, "We don't have to hurt people."
"Then why do they do it anyway?"
Rebekah struggled to find the words for a long moment. Hope was only four, and she had a heart so pure, her eyes – the color of the devil – filled with the blessings of an angel, and Rebekah couldn't, she wouldn't shatter her illusions that a vampire could control their very base instincts.
"Sometimes vampires get angry Hope," She explained, "And when we are angry, we are filled with rage. A rage that consumes us, that takes away our ability to think clearly."
"But then why do we have to get angry?" Hope blinked, "Why can't everyone just get along?"
Rebekah smiled kindly, "If you ever figure out the answer to that question, you let me know, darling, because even I haven't learned that."
"I think if people are nice, then they won't do bad things."
"I think this world would be a very beautiful place if everyone had half the heart you did, Hope Mikaelson."
"Will you tell me the story, again?" Hope asked turning on her side, resting her head on Rebekah's arm instead of her pillow, "The one about the king and his princess?"
Rebekah smiled again, though this smile was more melancholy than the one before it, if only Nik and Hayley understood how much they were adored, how much Hope loved them, if only Hope understood how much she was loved, how much her parents must love her to do what they had for her.
The moment Nik handed her Hope for the first time, Rebekah knew how much he loved his daughter, she was the first person he had done a single selfless act for since the moment he had become Klaus.
And Rebekah would never forget that in that same notion she was also the first person he had ever done a selfless act for. It had been done for Hope's safety, but Nik – the one who had restrained her from doing the things she so wished – in the space of a few months, had given her everything she could ask for.
He had given her someone to love her – Hope's love was better than any man's, there was no question that if the only love she ever received was Hope's endless amounts of it, it would be more than enough. He had given her a family – Rebekah had a white fence, and someone to tuck in every night, and someone to hold her hand, someone whose hair fell into the perfect loose waves as her own, she had a family in Hope. And he had set her free – he had given her the freedom to not only live her life, but live her life with Hope.
It was a sacrifice Rebekah would never forget, she would never forget how Hayley and Nik had sacrificed their own happiness for Hope, and furthermore entrusted her to Rebekah.
"And the king had no choice but to send his beloved princess away, leaving all who remained thinking that she was forever lost." Rebekah concluded.
"Auntie Bex?"
"Yes, darling?"
"Do you think the king is sad without his princess?"
"I think," Rebekah said carefully wording her answer, "Anyone whose world doesn't contain the princess is very sad indeed."
"I don't think the king or the queen should be sad. I don't think the princess would want them to be sad."
"I think that's a very good thought." Rebekah kissed her forehead, "Now, hush, darling, its bed time."
"Will you stay with me?" Hope asked, "In here?"
Rebekah smiled, "Of course I will love."
Rebekah – who was already lying in bed with her – wrapped her arms just a little bit tighter around Hope, who cuddled closer into her side than she had before, and sighed quietly to herself. There were never moments, greater than the ones like these, in which Rebekah wished Nik and Hayley were there.
She knew she could do this, raise Hope alone, she knew she could love her just as much as Nik and Hayley, but she knew that she would never be able to love her like Nik and Hayley could.
"Auntie Bex?" Hope murmured sleepily.
"Yes?"
"I don't ever want to do bad things. I want to be good, like the princess."
"Oh Hope," Rebekah whispered long after Hope had fallen asleep, "You are the princess, my sweet girl."
"Hope," Rebekah breathed as she took in the scene, "What have you done?"
Her eyes, that had once represented such an innocence, such a life in them, were now sharp, cold, calculating, and unaffected. They were no longer Nik's eyes, rather Klaus'. They truly were the eyes of the devil.
Her high cheekbones that had once made her face seem so gentle, so kind, now truly gave her the regal air that it was meant to. It gave her the appearance that everyone was beneath her, and she truly did not care about anyone or anything.
"I killed him." Hope replied in a cold tone that Rebekah had never heard from her, but it was a tone cold enough, to melt all the sunshine that Hope had ever created, it was cold enough that despite the fact that she couldn't feel the cold, Rebekah shivered, "What does it look like?"
"Hope," Rebekah stepped forward cautiously, like she was talking to an injured baby deer, one that had the power of a nuclear weapon, "Darling, you need to turn it back on."
"And why, exactly, should I take my marching orders from you?" She asked raising her eyebrows condescendingly, "You aren't even really my mother, Aunt Rebekah."
Rebekah swallowed, as she tried to remind herself that this wasn't Hope talking, this was just someone who looked like Hope, but would never be the real person. But it was hard, it was hard when she knew exactly what insecurities to hit, and how exactly to hit them.
She had all of Hope's thoughts and feelings, but none of her emotions, none of her grace.
"Hope, you need to turn it back on." Rebekah said hardening her tone, as she tried to force herself to remember that she was Rebekah Mikaelson, she didn't take shit from anyone, especially not her eighteen year old niece, in comparison to her Hope was practically a fetus, "Now."
"You highly overestimate the degree to which I care for what you want, Aunt Rebekah." Hope said dryly as she stepped over the body in the middle of the room – the body of someone Rebekah could barely look at, someone that both she and Hope had loved very dearly – to push open her closet door, "Which in case you weren't aware, is not at all."
"Well I care about you," She said firmly as Hope pulled on a black leather jacket that Rebekah hadn't even known she owned, "I love you very much, which is why I am telling you that if you do not turn your humanity back on right now Hope Mikaelson, I will make you."
"You cannot force me to do anything," Hope said as she glanced at the bottom of her shoes that was covered in blood, "Well that's unfortunate, I quite liked these."
Rebekah resisted to urge to throw up everything that was in her stomach – which was absolutely nothing. She had seen her fair share of death, she had caused more than her fair share of death, but there was something so different about knowing that the cause of someone you love's death was by the hands of someone else you love – someone who didn't seem capable of such a heinous act.
"Darling," Rebekah said hoping a gentler approach would work, "What happened? Just tell me what happened and we can figure the rest out."
"Figure what out?" She asked pulling off her sneakers and tossing them carelessly to the side, and pulling on a pair of black heels with a zipper at the back – something else Rebekah didn't know she owned, "I truly don't care what happens next in terms of what you do with him. He's just taking a space."
"This is not who you are Hope," Rebekah shook her head warm tears filling her eyes, "You're humanity is who you are, your humanity defines you."
"I never really did care much for labels." She shrugged tossing her long, dark hair by running a few fingers through the top of it, before pulling opening her bedroom door, and slamming it shut behind her, and she exited.
Rebekah took a long deep breath as her eyes were unwillingly drawn to the body in the middle of the room.
He was covered in blood, and Rebekah was having a hard time discerning whether it was his blood or her Hope's. His left leg had been snapped clean in half and there were fingerprints embedded into his arms – Hope's fingerprints.
Hope and Jason had been so in love with each other when she had left two hours ago, and she couldn't even begin to understand what had happened in the space of two hours, that had changed that so drastically, she couldn't even fathom what could have happened that had ended with Hope turning off her humanity, and Jason lying on the floor dead.
"I am so sorry." Rebekah said quietly to a person who would never hear her again, before she glanced around the bedroom once more – the bedroom that had barely changed since Hope had been born.
The same furniture – now broken and strewn across the room – pushed against the walls, the walls – now covered in a red – painted the same color, the lights – now lying uselessly on the floor – wrapped around the same places.
The only thing that changed were the pictures added around the room, over the years Hope had grown, the sheer number of them tucked into closets around the room, bordering sheer insanity.
There was no way they would know what would happen with Hope, while she was half vampire, she was also half werewolf, and quarter witch, she had human qualities, evident from the fact that she aged. They just didn't know if she would ever stop aging, or she would eventually live to an old age and die.
They didn't know if she could be turned, they truly didn't know anything.
And in the darkest of nights, when the fear of losing Hope truly got to Rebekah, she pulled out those pictures, just to remind herself, that even if Hope were to die, she would have all these moment, all these memories.
"Hope!" Rebekah cried as she slammed the door shut to a room she would never see again, "Hope, wait!"
"I don't need a baby-sitter anymore Aunt Rebekah." Hope said coldly as she threw a purse over her shoulder, and pulled open the front door, "I'd say I'll miss you, but you are the one who taught me not to lie."
"Hope, you cannot go off on your own." Rebekah stressed once again forcing herself to ignore the way Hope said 'Aunt Rebekah' instead of 'Auntie Bex' it was one of her smallest problems in that moment, "It is dangerous out there, there are people out there who will kill you if they know you're alive."
"Kill me?" Hope raised her eyebrows a mocking tone in her voice, "What do they think they can do to me? I'm the true hybrid, I'm the most powerful creature in this world. I don't have to fear anyone."
"There is one person that you should fear," She protested as she followed her out the front door, steeling herself, to physically restraining her and keeping her there, "There is one creature that even you don't have a chance against my darling."
"I think I'll take my chances."
"I wouldn't." Rebekah continued, "He will hunt you Hope, he will hunt you down, and he will force you home, and you will not like the consequences if he has to do that. He will make you turn your humanity back on."
"Oh Aunt Rebekah, do you honestly believe that I am stupid enough to actually believe that my father would hurt me, humanity or no humanity? I'm not scared of him."
"No," Rebekah shook her head, "I just think that without your humanity, you're stupid enough to believe that he won't come for you, that he won't hunt you down, that he won't force you to turn it back on. I think without your humanity you're stupid enough to believe that you have no reason to fear him."
Rebekah waited for the flash of indecision, she waited for the flash of apprehension that always crossed Hope's eyes whenever she mention Nik – Hope was a Daddy's girl without ever having any memory of her father at all – but it never came.
And that was when she knew, there was no point in Rebekah attempting to stop Hope, she had truly stopped caring about everything, she had truly blocked away everything that made her who she was, and at the end of the Hope was stronger than Rebekah.
She wasn't just a hybrid, she was an Original, she had magic – highly volatile and unpredictable magic – without her moral compass Hope was lethal – and despite what she had said, Rebekah wasn't sure if even Nik was as lethal as Hope had the potential to be without her humanity, and absolutely no weaknesses.
"Rebekah?" Nik's voice came down the line, the worry that she knew had to be there, carefully concealed as they hadn't so much as heard each other's voices in five years. The last time had been when Hope had run off, and only Nik could track her.
"She's gone, Nik!" Rebekah cried her own voice unrecognizable even to her, "She is gone!"
"What do you mean she's gone Rebekah?" Nik asked his voice taking on a steely edge, "There are only so many times she can run off before it becomes your error."
"No!" She cried shaking her head as she tried to find the words, as she tried to tell her brother that his daughter was gone, "Nik she turned it off. She turned it off."
Nik was quiet for a long while, and if Rebekah couldn't hear the slight background noise from wherever he was, she would've thought he had hung up.
"What happened, Rebekah?" His voice was controlled, calculating, and it reminded him just a bit too much of Hope with her humanity off.
"Jason's dead," Rebekah said then paused for a second, "Hope killed him. I don't know how it happened, and now she's gone, I tried to stop her, but without her humanity-"
"You wouldn't have stood a chance." He interrupted.
"I am so sorry." Rebekah whispered though she wasn't quite sure what she was apologizing for.
"Take care of the boy, little sister."
"What about Hope?"
"Hayley, Elijah, Davina, Marcel, and I will start searching for her now. Once you've disposed of the boy, it would be best if you do so as well."
"And what happens once we find her?" Rebekah asked nervously.
Nik was silent for a few seconds before he spoke with a tone of both promise and danger, "I think it's time the princess return home to New Orleans. Whether she'd like to, or not."